Centrifugal air cleaner



C. C. WHITTAKER CENTRIFUGAL AIR CLEANER Filed-Dec. l1, 1948 July 24, 1951 INVENTOR Charles C. Whittaker.

Fig I.

WITNESSES: 33

A MAM 7%? y other gases by centrifugal action.

Patented July 24,1951

UNITED STATS PATENT OFFICE. if*

' 2,562,007` i 'l t j y CENTRIFUGAL AIR CLEANER Charles C. Whittaker, Pittsburgh, Pa., assigner to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, East` Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application December 11, 1948, Serial No. 64,795

I Cl. 18S-80) 4 Claims.

My invention relates, generally, to air cleaners and, more particularly, to cleaners of a type in which foreign matter is removed from air and In air cleaners of previous designs, the particles `of dirt passed through the fan in the cleaner during the cleaning process. This caused erosion of the fan blades and also gave the particles an impulse in a direction which interfered with the eiicient collection of these particles of dirt.

high percentage of the total volume of air be utilized for scavenging. Since this amount of air was discharged with the dirt, it was not available for cooling or other useful purposes.

An object of my invention, generally stated, is to provide an air cleaner which shall be simple and efficient in operation and which may be economically manufactured and installed.

A more specificr object of my invention is to prevent the dirt removed by an air cleaner of the centrifugal type from passing through the fan which draws the air through the cleaner.

Another object of my invention is to reduce the amount of air required for scavenging a centrifugal air cleaner.

, Other objects of my invention will be explained fully hereinafter or will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

In accordance with one embodiment of my invention, a skimmer ring and an annular jet are provided for discharging the particles of dirt from an air cleaner of the centrifugal type. The

skimmer is so disposed that the dirt does not pass through the fan in the cleaner. The jet may be adjusted to discharge a maximum amount of dirt with minimum air wastage.

For a better understanding of the nature and objects of my invention, reference may be had to the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a View, partially in elevation and partially in section, of an air cleaner embodying the principal features of my invention, and

Fig. 2 is a View, in plan of a portion of the structure shown in Fig. 1, a portion being broken away for clearness.

Referring to the drawing, an air cleaner, which may be of the centrifugal type such as disclosed in my copending application Serial No. 685,010, led July 20, 1946, patented June 20, 1950, No. 2,512,401, comprises an outer sleeve II and an inner sleeve I2 which is separated from Prior cleaners also required that a relatively t and is spaced from the outer sleeve I I by spacing y 2 y f 'y jg the outer sleeve II by a space I3. The bottom lbf the outer sleeve I I may be attached to a supporting plate I4 which in turn may rest onav suitable supporting structure such as the floor of a locomotive cab (not shown). A flat disk I5 having a central opening IB may be attached to the top of the outer sleeve II. A similar disk I'I having a somewhat smaller centr-al openingfis spaced from thedisk I5 and supported by a plurality of channel-shaped Vanes I8 which maybe secured in position by stud bolts I9, as shown in Fig. 2.

A motor 2l is disposed in the opening in the disk I'I' and may be attached to the disk I'I by stud bolts 22 which are threaded into a flange 23 provided on the housing of the motor 2|. The motor 2I may be provided with a removable. end cover 24. As shown, the top of the inner sleeve I2, which surrounds the motor 2|, may be at@- tached to the flange 23 on the housing of the motor 2 I As shown in Fig. 1, a fan 25, which is drivenv by a vertical shaft 26 of the motor 2l, is so disposed at the bottom of the inner sleeve I2 that airwhich enters the cleaner between the spaced disks' I5 and I'I is drawn axially downwardly through the space I3 between the outer sleeve II and the 'inner sleeve I2 by the fan 25. As shown by thel arrows in Fig. 2, the air enters at A tangentially to the vertical sleeves II and I2 and is then bent downwardly through an angle of ".l Part of the i dirt is removed by centrifugal actionas the air flows through the 90 bend and is thrown against the inside of the outer sleeve I I. l

As described in my aforesaid copendingapplication, the vanes I8 are so disposed that the air is caused to whirl about the inner sleeve I 2 as it travels downwardly through the cleaner, thereby removing the remainder of the dirt from the air. In this manner the foreign matter in the air, generally referred to as dirt, is thrown against the inside of the outer sleeve I I by centrifugal action.

As shown in Fig. 1, the particles of dirt travel downwardly along the sleeve II until they come to a skimmer ring 2'! which surrounds the fan 25 members 28 disposed on bolts 29 which support the skimmer ring 21. As shown, the upper edge of the skimmer ring 2l is so disposed above the fan 25 that the dirt is prevented from passing through the fan 25. In this manner erosion of the fan blades is prevented.

If the opening lbetween the skimmer ring 21 and the outer sleeve I I were continued to atmosphere above the blades of the fan 25, the dirt would not pass out but air would be drawn into the fan intake by the suction of the fan. To overcome this tendency, I have provided an annular jet 3l which communicates with the pressure side of the fan 25. As shown, the jet 3l is formed between the bottom o the skimmer ring 21 and the top of a collector ring 32 which is disposed below and spaced yfrom the skimmer ring 21.

As shown by the arrows in Fig. 1, a portion of the air from the pressure side o the fan 25 news through the jet 3l and, by its velocity, overcomes atmospheric pressure, entrains the dirty air stream and blows it to atmosphere in the same manner as feed water is forced into a boiler bya steam injector. The dirty air is discharged through an opening 33 provided in the base plate Il between the collector ring 32 and an enlarged portion 34 of the outer sleeve i I. A deflector ring 35 may be provided for deflecting the dirty air from around the collector ring into the opening .33.

In order that the jet 3l may be adjusted to obtain maximum dirt recovery with minimum air wastage, vertical slots may be provided in the outer sleeve I l for the bolts 29 which support the skimmer ring fil. 1n this manner the ring 2 may be adjusted vertically to vary the size oi the `jet 3l between the skimmer ring 2l' and the collector ring 32. Actual tests have demonstrated that the efiicency of the present cleaner is considerably higher than that of cleaners previously constructed since a relatively high percentage of dirt may be separated with a low percentage oi air being required for scavenging.

Furthermore, as shown by the arrows in Fig.

2, only clean air passes through the ian 21, thereby preventing erosion of the fan blades. Also, the skimmer ring 2'! functions more eicientlyin removing the dirty air from the cleaner since vthe top of the skimmer ring is above the fan blades, thereby preventing the ian from giving the particles of dirt an impulse in a `direction which interfered with the emcient collection of the dirt particles, as was done in previous cleaners.

, From the foregoing description it is apparent that I have rprovided an improved air cleaner of the centrifugal type which is relatively simple in construction and which is highly eilcient in operation. suitable for use in electric locomotives but is not necessarily limited thereto as it has numerous other applications.

Since numerous changes may be made in the above-described construction and different einbodiments of the invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, it

The present cleaner is particularly is intended that all matter contained in the foregoing description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

claim as my invention:

l. A centrifugal air-cleaner comprising spaced outer and inner sleeves having an air-passage therebetween, an axial-flow ian at the outletend of said air-passage for causing air to flow through said air-passage, inlet-means disposed at the inlet-end of said air-passage and comprising whirling-means for causing the dirt-laden inlet-air to whirl centrifugally as it passes axially through said air-passage, whereby to cause the dirt to be thrown against the inside of the outer sleeve, a spaced skimmer-ring having a skimming end disposed in closely spaced relation to the inside of the outer sleeve for skimming the centriiuged dirty air ofi of said outer sleeve as said dirty air moves axially therealong, said skimmerring being disposed in closely spaced relation around the outer periphery of the fan whereby the ian draws the cleaned air through the inside oi said ring, injector-means using a small quantity of the outlet-air from said fan to move the centrifuged dirty air axially along the space between the outside of said skimmer-ring and the inside of said outer sleeve, and vent-means for discharging said injector-moved dirty air out of the air-cleaner and into the atmosphere.

2. The invention as defined in claim i, characterized by said outer and inner sleeves being disposed so the ian is at the bottom of said air-passage.

3. rihe invention as defined in claim 1, characterized by the skimming opening being adjustable.

4. The invention as dened in. claim 1, char.- acteriaed by said injector-means including a collector-ring which is spaced axially from the discharge-end of said skimming-ring, and said skimming-ring being axially adjustable whereby to adjust the relative sizes oi the skimming opening and the ejector-opening.

CHARLES C. WEHTTAKER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,576,670 McGee Mar. 16', 1926 2,346,005 Bryson Apr. 4, 1944 2,375,203 Appeloloorn May 8, 1945 2,471,178 f Walsh May 24, 1949 2,512,401 Whittaker June 20, 1950 

